The Fray

The Fray

The Fray - Average, Based on 2 Critics

AllMusic - 60Based on rating 6/10

60

The Fray's second album picks up where How to Save a Life left off, revisiting the same blend of piano-led balladry and midtempo pop/rock that helped establish the band in 2005. International tours and platinum-selling singles may have turned the Fray into superstars, but the actual songwriting remains unchanged, with songs like "You Found Me" and "Enough for Now" sounding quite similar to their predecessors. Those parallels are strengthened by producers Aaron Johnson and Mike Flynn, both of whom helped record How to Save a Life and repeat the job here to predictable effect.

With 2005’s How to Save a Life, these ?Denver-based soft-rock dudes proved that one way to stay afloat in a beleaguered record industry is to make music bland enough to avoid offending any palate. (Another good idea: Land songs in seemingly every show on TV.) Life had a handful of standouts, but follow-up The Fray is all blah, all the time: more ? minor-key melodies, more dreary tempos, more of singer-pianist Isaac Slade’s spiceless sore-throat croon. One track is called “Say When.” How about now? C? Download This: Listen to the song ”Happiness” on imeem.com .